When Darcy Truthwaite, a nurse in Fisher Branch, cold-called her
birth family in Winnipeg, she didn’t plan on blurting out the reason.
"I said to the man who answered, ‘I don’t want to interfere, but
my search for my birth family has led me to you,’ " said Truthwaite.
"He said, ‘You’re not interfering.’ That was the perfect thing to say."
An hour later, Truthwaite found herself on the phone with three
aunts, all asking her questions at the same time. An hour after that,
her birth mother called from Alberta. The next week, they met in
Medicine Hat.
That scenario, hopefully as happy, could be replayed hundreds of
times this summer as the Manitoba government prepares to unseal 70 years
worth of adoption records.
The Selinger government will announce legislation passed
last year will come into force June 15. Already, roughly 1,000 people
have applied to see their files. Provincial staff have begun pulling the
records so the documents can be released quickly after changes to the
Adoption Act and the Vital Statistics Act are proclaimed into law.
Meanwhile, fewer than 60 people, mostly mothers, have filed
disclosure vetoes asking the province to keep their records secret.
That’s a small number amid an estimated 50,000 files, but roughly the
number provincial officials expected.
"This is about the right to identity, but not necessarily a right
to a relationship," cautioned Janice Knight, manager of adoption and
post-adoption programs in the Family Services Department. "If you’re
going to say, ‘No, this is the secret of my life, I don’t want to share
it,’ we really respect that."
Manitoba’s adoption records have been sealed since 1925. In 1999,
the province took a half-measure toward fully open adoption records,
allowing anyone born after 1999 to see their file once they reach
adulthood. Since then, adoption advocates have lobbied Manitoba to
follow other provinces and unseal all records, even though the province
originally promised birth parents they’d be kept secret.
Come June 15, adoptees and birth parents will have access to birth
records, adoption documents and other identifying information.
Debbie McMechan says she wishes adoption records had been unsealed when
she was searching for her birth father. (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE Press)
KEEP READING: Province readying to unseal adoption records next month
a blog for and by American Indian and First Nations adoptees who are called a STOLEN GENERATION
Reference Material
- How to Open Closed Adoption Records for Native American Children (updated 2020)
- NEW! Help for First Nations Adoptees (Canada)
- LOST CHILDREN BOOK SERIES
- Split Feathers Study
- About Trace
- Karen Vigneault - Helping Native Adoptees Search
- The reunification of First Nations adoptees (2016)
- You're Breaking Up: Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl #ICWA
- FAQ ICWA 2016
- Indian Child Welfare Act organizations
- About the Indian Adoption Projects
- How to Search (adoptees)
- Soaring Angels (UPDATE 2020)
- THE PLACEMENT OF AMERICAN INDIAN CHILDREN - THE NEED FOR CHANGE (1974)
- NEW: Study by Jeannine Carriere (First Nations) (2007)
- NEW STUDY: Post Adoption (Australia)
- Oklahoma Supreme Court RULING: Brown v.Delapp (9-2...
- Dr. Raven Sinclair
- Laura Briggs: Feminists and the Baby Veronica Case...
- Bibliography (updated)
- Adopt an Elder: Ellowyn Locke (Oglala Lakota)
- MEDIA
- TWO NATIONS: Navajo (Boarding School)
- GOLDWATER
- #MMIWG MAY 2019
- Survivor Not Victim (my interview with Von)
- Adoption History
- Native American News Outlets
- First Nations Repatriation Institute
- Adoptee Citizen Act of 2019
- Reuters Investigates THE CHILD EXCHANGE (re-homing...
- FREE REGISTRY (sign up at ISRR)
- Genealogy\Indian Affairs 2020
- Home

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Imagine a life filled with blanks. Most #Adoptees live that experience. Adoptees United Inc. works to eliminate the inequality of denying adult adoptees their own truths and identities. Support that work by purchasing a pack of “Intentionally Blank” cards. https://t.co/Ar1bgecYB5
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To Veronica Brown
Veronica, we adult adoptees are thinking of you today and every day. We will be here when you need us. Your journey in the adopted life has begun, nothing can revoke that now, the damage cannot be undone. Be courageous, you have what no adoptee before you has had; a strong group of adult adoptees who know your story, who are behind you and will always be so.

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— TraceLHentz (@StonePony33) January 17, 2019

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